NEWS: NISMO announces Heritage Parts restoration program for R32 Skyline GT-R

This is huge. NISMO announced this week that its is launching a program to recreate discontinued parts for certain Nissan cars. Called the Heritage Parts program, its purpose is to “provide support for Nissan performance models.” First up is the R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R, which achieved classic status three years ago. 

The program comes as part of a reshuffle of Nissan’s corporate structure. A newly established NISMO Cars division, part of Nissan’s Autech subsidiary, will focus on road cars and operate distinct from the motorsports side of the business.

Beyond the convenience of being able to buy parts for your R32 fresh from Nissan again, the program is a testament how seriously the Skyline GT-R is treated as a classic. Nissan clearly believes that serving enthusiasts and keeping the cars on the road will be good for the company’s brand image.

Other manufacturers, especially German ones, have established their own restoration programs over the years. Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and BMW all have similar plans for owners of their classic models. Honda has maintained one for the NSX as well, albeit in Japan.

Of course, it’s not the first time Nissan has tried something like this. In the 90s, Nissan USA started a campaign to buy back, restore, and resell from the dealership Datsun 240Zs. The Vintage Z program was axed after about 40 cars were restored due to cost.

The Heritage Parts program will differ slightly, focusing on parts rather than whole cars. Furthermore, “If things go well… if possible,” Autech president Takao Katagiri said during the press conference, “We want to expand the models that we cover through this program.”

Shinichiro Sakurai, the Prince engineer known as the Father of the Skyline, was the first president of Autech when it was established in 1986. If he were alive today, we think he’d be proud. The Heritage Parts Program will begin sales in fall of 2017.

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41 Responses to NEWS: NISMO announces Heritage Parts restoration program for R32 Skyline GT-R

  1. Jayrdee says:

    This is so cool.

    I absolutely love it when a manufacturer acknowledges the passion/cult following for their vehicles.

    Now its time for Toyota and TRD to do the same thing 😉 .. maybe with the AE86, Supra, and MR2?!

    • ish says:

      oh please jesus. 86 parts are so damn hard to find these days without dropping a pile of cash for old decrepit parts. I would love to see them restock Supra, 86, MR2 and FJ60 parts.

      • Jayrdee says:

        It only makes sense!

        I mean, think about how many 1jz / 2jz / 4ag / 3sg swaps are out there?! The majority of these motors are anywhere between 15-30+ years old and still keep going.

        Im sure its the same thing with the FJ60 crowd too.

    • Sabin Simard says:

      And Cressida (MX32), and Celica (RA20 to 29 and 42 and 64), and RWD Corolla, and Corona…….

      • Sabin Simard says:

        …and all Hilux and Trucks, and Land Cruiser ( FJ40-45-55-60-62 )…..At least, this is so much less money compared to an F1 team and much more great to see their greatest still on the road!!!

    • Nathan says:

      I second this! Finding trim parts for the Mk2 MR2 can be such a pain, especially good door seals, never mind the pain of Mk1 owners looking for little plastic bits.

      • NeoN says:

        MK1 & MK2 owner… The plastic bits for the mk1 are insanely expensive and at the end of the day it’s still a 30yo part that is known to crack and can crack on you tomorrow no matter how much you paid for it.

  2. Nigel says:

    Awesome news !!

  3. Negishi no Keibajo says:

    In a world of “disposable” cars, this would actually make me look at a brand. If they think enough of their legacy, I would at the very least, consider their showroom.

    I agree with Jayrdee; are you watching, Toyota?

    • Jayrdee says:

      I really hope so.

      With how popular its cars/motors are, i’m surprised they haven’t done so already.

      And if you look at what Toyota has done these past few years, it seems like they’re trying to get back into the sportier side of the automotive industry. They’re getting back into the WRC with the 2017 Yaris, recently announced the supercharged 1.8l 6-speed LSD Yaris they plan on doing a limited number of (unfortunately won’t be offered in the US), there’s the FT1 that is “rumored” to be the next Supra, Lexus has a solid lineup of V8 cars and the LC-LF, etc. I think this is a good sign, since they make all their money from selling Camry’s to your Aunt Betty.

    • Ben Hsu says:

      Agree 100 percent, though we’re likely to see Land Cruiser resto parts before AE86 or MR2 parts. Hope I’m wrong, though.

      • Jayrdee says:

        I read, I think in a SuperStreet magazine a few issues ago, they covered an all Supra event somewhere in SoCal.

        Apparently Toyota brought out the FT1 concept car to the event. Not some random owner (I think?), but the Toyota company itself. Im just thinking, how are you going to bring the newest concept car, that’s supposed to replace arguably the most popular legendary platform, to an event that is dedicated to only that legendary platform, and not see the demand for replacement parts?!

        Like seriously, come on Toyota. Stop being such a tease!

    • sabin simard says:

      Please, all of you, just watch this, it’s never a question of standing, price range, quality question or all the bullshit served by all carmakers of all country, but just watch this video and you will not see them like never before.

  4. Taylor says:

    Thanks to CarThrottle, who merely speculated that this could expand to the Zs, I’ve now seen a bunch of people on Z groups I’m in say that it’s going to happen. Thanks for reporting something straight. I’m certainly hoping that parts for, say, my Z31 come back into production, but at least I can continue to temper that with the fact it’s all still hope and speculation right now.

  5. Dave Patten says:

    FutoFab is the North American sales outlet for a manufacturer starting production on 70-78 Datsun Z Car reproduction body panels.

    Currently we have the 77-78 280Z hoods w/louver openings in stock. We have a reorder in production for JDM style 70-72 240Z chrome bumpers (w/o rub strips or over riders). Also stocked in-house are JDM style 240Z tail lights with amber directional lenses.

    The immediate plans for reproduction S30 Z car parts will include 70-76 Hoods (no louvers) and 70-78 door skins.

    Our Z car body panels are coming from the same manufacturer that makes the Datsun 510 body panels we currently sell. We continue to get very good response to the fit of these panels and expect to have the same results with the Z car parts that are coming.

    Dave Patten, Owner
    FutoFab, LLC

  6. SHC says:

    Hopefully this will spur other manufacturers to offer more parts for the limited production pre ’70’s models.

  7. Mark Newton-John says:

    I need parts for my F-10!
    なんちゃって!

  8. Randy says:

    Always great to have more resto parts become available! Even if it’s not something I need, it’s still more support in that direction.

    Curious: Why hasn’t there been a big aftermarket for them around the world?

    I get that in the U.S., maybe it took this long for the cars to become more appreciated, but in the countries where these are staples of the auto world, you’d think a resto industry would’ve already been in full swing, with the U.S. being the expansion market…

    • Bob says:

      They weren’t that old yet, and parts can still be kinda found. A friend in Canada has had easily 15 R32 GT-Rs pass through his hands in various stages in the past decade- he had 4 in his yard at one point, mostly for parts. Mechanical parts were always his biggest need

      • Randy says:

        I guess I left that kinda vague – I mean for old(er) J-cars/trucks across the board. My bad…

        MN-J above said he needs parts for his F-10. Are the body parts available, for, say Scott’s (I think) Sentra Wagon? I meant for ALL of ’em. How cool would it be for restorations to be no more difficult for [insert vehicle here] than for a ’65 Mustang?

        I’d think Skylines are probably among the easier J-cars to restore, just because of their cult following, though even at that, the available supply of donor vehicles for a lot of stuff is probably getting thin.

        • Mark Newton-John says:

          I was actually kidding, it’s just that the F-10 has to be the most funkyist car Datsun ever sold here.

  9. Brett says:

    Porsche and Mercedes have similar programs, and it sounds fantastic, until you are told the cost of the parts. The low volume, and additional expense to retool to make them, often makes the cost, shall we say, very high; which is OK if you are repairing/ restoring a German classic that will be worth a lot of money, but might be much harder to justify on an old JDM. Hopefully the Toyota program and parts won’t be prohibitively expensive.

    • Bob says:

      The Mercedes program has ended. A friend took this program into consideration when he decided to make 30+ year old Mercs his daily transportation, but the parts were always prohibitively expensive or out of stock (or incredibly limited stock). The Merc program was wider ranging though- they had suggested they would supply you with any part for any Mercedes, period, whereas this focuses on one so far. That, and Mercedes has historically had a nasty habit of making a different variation of most parts for different years and different motors and different markets, often for no real apparent benefit, so there was much more to be stocked.

      Toyota has has a surprising amount of restoration parts available in the system if you can find the part # to look it up, often tremendously difficult. I have a fair amount of parts I found for my Celica just pumping part numbers into a website, and they’re definitely of newer production, not 40 year old items, though I’m not sure why.

      • Brett says:

        I wasn’t aware that the Mercedes program has ended; it has been a while since I needed anything.

      • Dimitry says:

        Japanese tend to reuse stuff that works and works well. I mean look at Subaru diffs that are going into older Hakos nowadays.

      • Jayrdee says:

        Thats interesting! I work in parts at a Toyota dealership and I have a co-worker who used to work in parts for Mercedes. He told me about this program and how you could get pretty much anything that was was ever made by them, even limited run accessories.

        He said for super old vehicles he would have to literally pull out old catalogs and call Germany haha.

  10. Anthony Mark mule says:

    I would love this for my integra 1992 da come on honda

  11. Punto8 says:

    They should create a program to address their terrible CVT transmission and the rest of their lackluster lineup.

  12. Tim says:

    So, all of those people with the R32 dash bubble will be able to get a new dash? And all the broken interior plastics can be replaced?

    Honestly, this sounds awesome.

  13. Kiran says:

    Man I wish I could get parts for my 1983 Mitsubishi Cordia but Mitsubishi seems to be pretty broke at the moment

  14. Steve says:

    Well done and many thanks NISMO and Nissan. I look forward to buying parts for my R32 that I haven’t been able to obtain at the moment. Great news

  15. Negishi no Keibajo says:

    I know it’s a bit off in this site but I can get just about anything for my ’86 Suzuki Samurai. The aftermarket support is simply awesome. It seems they just don’t get the jdm love because of the “bro” image.

  16. Frank says:

    S13 dashes without a crack are getting rare.

  17. Troy says:

    they need to remake the E10 Cherry range.

  18. Jeff Koch says:

    Any idea when this program is due to kick off in Japan?

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